OCR Text |
Show 10 BEPOBT OF COMMISSIONEB. collisions between the emigrants and Indians. It seems to have been eminently successful, as no murders or robberies are reported to have been committed by these Indians during the present year. To give some idea of the immense travel along this route, and the consequent importance of conciliating the Indians, the agent states that in re-turning to Salt Take, he passed on each of several days as many as three hundred wagons. Some timely and efficient measures for the proper disposition and management of the Indians in California are of pressing importance to all concerned. The difficulties in which the suhiect is involved are thc more vm1):rrrassing in consequence of the abonivc e%rts that have been rn:~(leto 6 stnblish tixed and Dermant.nt relations wit11 them. Since the rejection of the treaties coicluded with a large number of the tribes, sufficient information has not been received to justify a confident opinion as to the plan ofoperations it may he most expedient to adopt. To any tbat have been or can be proposed, plausible objections may, doubtless, be urged ; but, regarding the policy of the rejected treaties as finally abandoned, and considering the removal of the Indians from the State as impossible, I suggest, as worthy of consideration, the plan of forming them into two grand colonies, to be suitably located: one I in the northern and the other in the southern portion of the State. Like circumstances recommend a like policy in relation to the Indians west of the Cascade mountains in Oregon. That the plan suggested cannot be carried into successM operation without the expenditure of large sums of money, is readily conceded; but what other measure, adequate to the exigencies of thecase, is free itom the same objection? Something better, it is hoped, may yet be devised. In the mean time, dogmatism, on a subject of such d35culty and importance, may well be forborne. Due attention has been aid to the pre aration of the third art of the work respecting the 1nian tribes of $e United States, pu&ished under the direction of this bureau, and it will be forthcoming during the approaching session of Congress. The edition of the first art, in-tended for distribution to the new members, will he ready for gelivery at an early day in the session. The present seems to be an appropriate occasion for calling the at-tention of Congress to certain treaty stipulations with various Indian tribes which the government, for a number of years, has failed to exe- ( cute. In consideration of the cession of their lands to the United States by the Sioux of the Mississippi, the Sacs and Foxes of Missis-sippi and Missouri, the Winnebagoes, Delawares, Osages, Iowas, Creeks, and Stockhridges, it was stipulated, on the art of the govern- meut, that certain sums should be paid to said tn; 6 es, amounting, in the aggregate, to $2,396,600, and tbat the same should be invested in safe and profitable stocks, yielding an interest of not less than five per cent. per anuum. Owing, however, to the embarrassed condition of the treasury, it was deemed advisable by Congress, in lieu of making the investments, to approp;iate, from year to year, a sum equal to the annual interest, at five per cent., on the several amounts required to be invested. On this account the government has already paid from its treasury $1,742,240-a sum which is now equal to two-thirds of the |